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‘Chicken’ or ‘fish’? Irish patients need more details about their hospital food

A Hiqa study has found some deficiencies in patient choices.

A NATIONWIDE SURVEY about hospital food and patient nutrition has found that some patients were forced to ask their families to bring in food for the them.

The study by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found that 86% of the patients they spoke to were happy with how they were fed while in hospital but identified a number of areas for improvement.

Hiqa carried out unannounced inspections in 13 hospitals, looked at information from a total of 42 facilities and also spoke to 579 patients.

The study found that patients were often given very little detail about their food choices.

“In many cases, meals were described as ‘chicken’ or ‘fish’ with no further detail about how the meat was cooked (fried, baked or stewed) or about side dishes such as vegetables or sauces,” the report states.

The report also points to the fact that, in general, patients order their meals a day in advance but that some hospitals are starting to allow patients choose their meal on the day they eat it.

Another problem the report pointed to is a lack of choice for patients of varying ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.

About a third of the 42 hospitals surveyed said that their menus did not provide options for patients who may have different dietary requirements for religious reasons. This was most pronounced in smaller regional hospitals according to the survey but Hiqa says it is an area that requires “significant improvement”.

In general, most reported that they were satisfied with how the food was presented and Hiqa’s inspections also observed a number of examples of hospital staff accommodating patients when they had requested food that was not on the menu.

In 15 cases, however, patients had asked family to bring them food from home, either because they didn’t feel they were getting enough to eat or they didn’t like the food.

“Negative comments about the food focused mainly on its temperature, primarily that hot food was not hot enough,” the Hiqa report states. 

Read: Where do you pay €1,000 a night for lumpy Weetabix and white toast? An Irish hospital >

Read: The furore around fatty, inedible hospital food overshadows a far more serious issue >

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:27 PM

    The guy asked for it, so what’s the issue?

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    Mute Cowboys Ted
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:29 PM

    I don’t know what to make of this.

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    Mute Joe Carey
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    This news is only about 4 days old.

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:47 PM

    Thats a disgrace Dan. Anyone ring Joe?

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    Mute Del Haven
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:54 PM

    Dan, that’s terrible, I hope everyone is ok.

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    Mute Dan Waters
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    at a university’s student union S&M is now art, so 1970s

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    Mute Niall O Neill
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:46 PM

    Did he call him a pansy, patsy or pussy?

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    Mute Dave Meagher
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:50 PM

    Pony

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    Mute Shane from Harlequin
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:31 PM

    These people have too much time on their hands.

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    Mute The Girl
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:37 PM

    Who’s Shia LaB…?

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    Mute Jax Maxwel
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:34 PM

    Not much of a video with no sound, not much of a video with sound either I would imagine.

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    Mute Derek Walsh
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:00 PM

    Imagine being in a lift with Shia LaBeouf and asking *him* to punch *you* in the face.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:45 PM

    Your man’s accent is very annoying

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:39 PM

    Have you got rid of your staff, who is Shia The Beef and why would anyone care what he thinks is art?

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    Mute Sean Johnston
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:25 PM

    Actor who culturally debased himself by agreeing to appear in more than one Transformers movie continues to beg the worlds artistic community for forgiveness.

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    Mute Paddy Ryan
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 5:57 PM

    For the money he was offered you’d have gotten Laurence Olivier to come back from the dead to star in it.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:38 PM

    A kick in the b0ll0x would be more arty

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    Mute An Observer
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:38 PM

    Sure….why not?

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    Mute Tadgh Smith
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 7:10 PM

    Meanwhile, in other news a picture of a Kitten on the internet today was adjudged to be “cute”.

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